Math Whizzes Scrutinize Electoral College
“To Keep or Not Keep the Electoral College.”
With a Shakespearean flourish, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology plans to apply its engineering and systems know-how to that question at a conference tomorrow that brings together Constitutional scholars and mathematics experts.
“Since its creation in 1787, the Electoral College has remained the most mysterious mechanism for electing a president of a country,’’ said Alexander S. Belenky, head of the Center for Engineering Systems Fundamentals at M.I.T. “There is no consensus among mathematicians, systems scientists and political scientists studying the Electoral College on whether it can satisfactorily serve the United States in the 21st century, especially after two close elections in 2000 and 2004.”
The conference will look at whether the Electoral College should be retained, eliminated or modified. Arnold I. Barnett, a management science professor at M.I.T. and the conference’s chair, said that as Election Day draws near and “as people start working the numbers, then there might be much more hunger to think, ‘Can we really do something differently?”
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With a Shakespearean flourish, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology plans to apply its engineering and systems know-how to that question at a conference tomorrow that brings together Constitutional scholars and mathematics experts.
“Since its creation in 1787, the Electoral College has remained the most mysterious mechanism for electing a president of a country,’’ said Alexander S. Belenky, head of the Center for Engineering Systems Fundamentals at M.I.T. “There is no consensus among mathematicians, systems scientists and political scientists studying the Electoral College on whether it can satisfactorily serve the United States in the 21st century, especially after two close elections in 2000 and 2004.”
The conference will look at whether the Electoral College should be retained, eliminated or modified. Arnold I. Barnett, a management science professor at M.I.T. and the conference’s chair, said that as Election Day draws near and “as people start working the numbers, then there might be much more hunger to think, ‘Can we really do something differently?”